In electrical engineering, the term charging station denotes any stationary apparatus or electrical installation which serves to feed energy to mobile rechargeable battery-operated devices, machines or motor vehicles by simple positioning or plugging-in, without necessarily having to remove the energy storage element—for instance the traction battery of an electric automobile. Charging stations for electric automobiles are sometimes also referred to as “electricity charging stations” and can comprise a plurality of charging points.
Known systems here include, in particular, DC rapid charging systems (high performance charging, HPC) such as the so-called combined charging system (CCS) widely used in Europe. In DC charging of the generic type, direct current is fed from the charging column directly into the vehicle and, for this purpose, is provided from the electricity grid by means of a powerful rectifier or at solar charging stations, for example, by means of large buffer rechargeable batteries. In the vehicle there is a battery management system, which communicates directly or indirectly with the charging column in order to adapt the current intensity or to end the process upon reaching a capacity limit.
In this case, the power electronics are usually situated in the charging column. Since the DC connections of the charging column are directly connected to corresponding connections of the traction battery, high charging currents can thus be transmitted with low losses, which enables short charging times.
A wide variety of topologies for the power electronics are used in the various charging stations that are used worldwide. Charging stations that additionally use an energy storage element in the form of a battery are also already known. Most commercially available charging stations have an internal galvanic isolation, such that the electrical circuit of the power electronics must also provide such an isolation. In this case, conventional charging columns use standard circuits with B6 or B12 bridges and are realized with conventional IGBT technology.
US2013088196A, DE102012203612A1, US2013334879A, US2012049794A, US2012199409A and US2015042159A, all of which are incorporated by reference herein, relate to charging stations for electric or hybrid vehicles with corresponding power electronics on the basis of a DC chopper (DC/DC converter) and—with the exception of US2012199409A, which is incorporated by reference herein, —power factor correction (PFC). The power electronics in accordance with US2013088196A, DE102012203612A1 and US2013334879A, all of which are incorporated by reference herein, here in each case comprise a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) assigned to the power factor correction and, in the case of US2013088196A, which is incorporated by reference herein, in addition a pulse width modulated rectifier. In the DC/DC converter in accordance with US2015042159A, which is incorporated by reference herein, both high- and low-voltage side are assigned to a MOSFET.